The Worldhood of the Cinematic Image

A close analysis of the specifically cinematographic procedure in Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Dream’ Crows reveals it as an articulated and insightful philosophical statement, endowed with general relevance concerning ‘natural’ perception, phenomenological Erlebnis, mechanical image and aesthetic rapture. The antagonism between the Benjaminian lineage of a mechanical irreducibility of the cinematic image to anthropocentric categories, and the Cartesian tradition of a film-philosophy still relying on the equally irreducible structure of the intentional act, be it the one of a deeply embodied and enworlded counsciousness, in accounting for the essential structure of film and spectator (and their relation), i.e., the antagonism between the decentering primacy of the image and the self-centered primacy of perception, cannot be settled through a simple Phenomenological shift from occularcentric, intentional counsciousness to its embodyment ‘in-the-world’ as yet another carrier of intentionality. Still it remains to be explained what is it in the mechanical image that is able to so deeply affect the human flesh, and conversely, to what features in the human bodily experience is its mechanical other, the fascinating image, so successfuly adressing? It should be expected from the anti-Cartesianism of both the early and the late Merleau-Ponty the textual support for an approach to the essential condition of passivity in movie watching, that would be convergent with Benjamin. The Chapter ‘Le sentir’, in Phénoménologie de la perception, will offer us the proper guide to elucidate what we are already perceiving and conceiving in Kurosawa’s film, where the ex-static phenomenological body of the aesthetical contemplator ‘enters the frame’ like the Benjaminian surgeon enters the body and like the painter - and always already like our deepest level of ‘sensing’, previously to any act of cousciousness - ‘just looses himself in the scene before him’. The Polichinello secret of cinema watching is nonetheless too evident to be seen, and that is where Phenomenological description and reduction are still required.

O cinema como recurso pedagógico na aula de história

Este estudo pretendeu pesquisar acerca da influência do cinema histórico de ficção na construção do conhecimento histórico de alunos de História A do Ensino Secundário. Foi realizado com uma turma do 10º ano de escolaridade de 20 alunos e foi antecedido de um estudo prévio. O trabalho baseou-se no visionamento do filme "O Gladiador" e na realização de fichas de trabalho: a "Ficha de Enquadramento Histórico do Filme", para contextualizar a época histórica em que decorria o filme; a "Ficha de Análise do Filme”, para recolha de dados e finalmente a "Ficha de Trabalho de Comparação entre Fontes Históricas e o Filme". As respostas fornecidas pelos alunos foram organizadas em categorias. Para as perguntas que pediam uma resposta mais directa e simples foram criadas três categorias: básica primária, básica secundária e definição elaborada. Para as perguntas que exigiam uma resposta mais complexa criaram-se cinco categorias: incoerente, básica primária, básica secundária, definição emergente e definição elaborada. As principais conclusões foram: a) o cinema de ficção desempenha um importante contributo na construção do conhecimento histórico dos alunos do ensino secundário; b) o visionamento de filmes de ficção na aula de História deve ser acompanhado com o confronto de fontes históricas para os alunos distinguirem ficção de conhecimento histórico; c) o cinema desempenha um papel muito importante no desenvolvimento das competências específicas de História do Ensino Secundário e do espírito crítico dos alunos; entre outras. / ABSTRACT: This study aimed to understand the influence of historical fiction movies in historical knowledge of students in History of Secondary Education. The study was conducted with a group of 20 students of the 1O th grade and was preceded by a preliminary study. The work was based on viewing the film Gladiator and on worksheets: A "Historical Background" to contextualize the historical era of the movie, the "The analysis of the Movie" to collect data and finally the “Comparison of Historical Sources and movie” worksheet to analyze distinguish fiction from historical knowledge. The responses given by students were categorized: for questions that asked for a more direct and simple answer were created three categories: Basic; Primary; Definition elaborated. For questions requiring a more complex answer were created five categories Incoherent; Basic; Primary; Emergent and Elaborated. The main conclusions were: a) the film fiction has an important contribution to historical knowledge of secondary school students, b) using films in history lessons should be accompanied with a comparison of historical sources for students to distinguish fiction from historical knowledge, c) the film plays an important role in the development of specific skills for the History of Secondary Education and the students' critical thinking, among others.

Media Gótico: O Crime e seu Duplo Ficcional na Literatura, TV e Cinema

Crime possesses a dual nature deriving from its portrayal in the media leading to duplicity in the act of witnessing crime which by showing reality inevitably transforms it into a different kind of reality. The direct relationship with the Gothic genre is very naturally justified by real crime seeming to replicate fictional crime and vice versa, thus originating various forms of the lack of distinction between reality itself and fictional reality, or between truth and falsehood, which many writers and artists associated with Gothic aesthetics have always relied on, and numerous examples of this can be found in the works of Edgar Poe, Patricia Highsmith, Chuck Palahniuk and many others. While real crime may take the Gothic novel as its prototype, it turns out that nowadays television has taken on this role. Examples of this phenomenon are the recent symptoms of obsessive dependence on TV series such as C.S.I., Criminal Minds, The X Files, The Following and Dexter, showing a tendency for television series to replace Gothic novels, thus revealing a perverse attraction for witnessing violence through the same means that transmit the daily news featuring violent events in different scenarios of war all over the world.